By Kelly L. Goodridge and Oscar De  Los Santos

Pelosi’s Bill: More Sludge in the D.C. Swamp

Yesterday (Oct. 29), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) praised Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) for their help in determining the finances and taxes that will be levied in the new souped-up 1900-page health care bill.  This “Affordable Health Care for America Act” (or H.R .3962) bill has been debated for months. It is a perfect example of liberal lunacy and promises reneged.

Pelosi’s “gargantuan beast of a bill” contains 13 new tax hikes (“Comprehensive List of Taxes in the House Democrat Bill,” atr.org, October 30, 2009). Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) points out, “One thing is clear. Your concerns about a government takeover of health care have been totally ignored by Speaker Pelosi and her allies, who worked behind closed doors to write this bill” (“Government Still Trying to Take Over Health Care,” biggoverment.com, October 30, 2009). Price also notes that Pelosi’s House bill means government-run insurance, higher taxes, a job-killing employer mandate and “countless provisions that set Washington bureaucrats firmly between you and your doctor.”

Oh, and Sarah Palin was right – the provision for death panels or “End-of-Life-Planning” is included in Pelosi’s bill.

She’s Clogging up the Congressional Works – and Rangel Isn’t Helping Things

When she was crowned Queen of the House, Madame Pelosi vowed to drain the D.C. swamp of corruption.  So far, she’s just further clogging up the works. Pelosi also promised, “We Will Create the Most Open and Honest Government in History” in a January 18, 2006¨Press Release (Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, California, 8th District, http://www.house.gov/pelosi/press/releases/Jan06/honest.html). Is that why Madame Speaker got Charlie Rangel, one of the most corrupt individuals in Washington D.C. to assist her with fact and figures as the new health care bill was drawn up?

The distinguished Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Rangel has been under investigation since the beginning of this year for multiple incidents involving tax evasion and failure to report income.  We’re not talking a few thousand bucks here (like Tim “Turbo Tax” Geithner).  Rangel is in deep you-know-what for hiding serious coin.  Peter Roff reports in U.S. News & World Report that “an ongoing investigation into Rangel’s finances reveals he has not been exactly candid with the IRS or, for the matter, his congressional colleagues about his real estate holding, sales of stock and his reportable income” (www.usnews.com/blogs/peter-roff/2009/09/08/for-the-democrats-sake-charles-rangel-must-go.html, May 12, 2009).

Back in May, further questions arose over the lord of the tax code’s conduct. Rangel’s “amended finance disclosure forms for the years 2002 through 2006, include his failure to report checking accounts at the Congressional Federal Credit Union and Merrill Lynch—each valued at between $250,000 and $500,000, tens of thousands of dollars in earning from stock dividends and mutual funds, and the proceeds from the sale of a townhouse back in his Manhattan-based congressional district” (Roff, www.usnews.com/blogs/peter-roff/2009/09/08/for-the-democrats-sake-charles-rangel-must-go.html, May 12, 2009). Yet this is the upstanding numbers man to whom Queen Pelosi turned in her hour of need.

Well, after all, Rangel is himself a big donor to the Democratic Party.

Maxine Waters – Another Inept Tax Plumber

As if Charlie Rangel weren’t enough, Pelosi also got Maxine Waters, a high-ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, to help draft the new hernia-inducing health care monstrosity.  Waters has her own tax disclosure issues. Michelle Malkin “spotlighted” Waters back in March for she and her husband’s “smelly involvement with minority-owned bank called OneUnited” (michellemalkin.com, October 30, 2009). On Thursday (Oct. 29), the House Ethics Committee announced that it is investigating whether “Waters used her influence to help a bank in which her husband owned stock, and whether the couple benefited as a result” (michellemalkin.com, October 30, 2009). Waters’ husband also sits on the bank’s board. What’s more, OneUnited received $12 million dollars in Stimulus bill monies. Barney Frank (D-MA) helped the bank to secure the funds (Kelly Cunnigham, http://www.sddt.com/Commentary/article.cfm?Commentary_ID=192&SourceCode=20090211tzd, February 11, 2009).

Pelosi+Rangel+Waters = Bad Sewage!

The results of such masterminds concocting a new health care bill are messy.  In fact, even though Pelosi claims the new bill is more streamlined in dollars (if not bulk), it’s potentially more damaging to Americans from the get-go.  If it passes, Americans will start to be taxed immediately in order to pay for it.   Keep in mind that it doesn’t take effect until 2013 (after Obama & Co. have been re-elected – they hope – and there’s nothing to do but suffer the consequences).

Pelosi claims that the $894 Billion dollar bill will insure an additional 36 million Americans.  She also claims that the bill will “cut the deficit by $30 million over 10 years, which means it would meet President Obama's budget requirements. It would also extend coverage to 96 percent of the population. Top Democrats say the numbers are based on estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, which has yet to formally score the bill” (Jason Plautz, NationalJournal.com, http://healthtopic.nationaljournal.com/2009/10/house-plan-will-cost-894-billi.php, October 30, 2009).

We’re left scratching our heads. What kind of magical numbers-out-of-the hat is Pelosi trying to pull?  Probably the same kind good ol’ Charlie Rangel uses to balance his tax returns.

Need a Plumber? Don’t Call One Named Pelosi!

“Poor Nancy, every time she tries to drain the swamp, she either catches a reflection of herself or she uncovers one of her friends. Drain a little, there's Charley Rangel wallowing in the mud” (chuckthings.blogspot.com, 5/12/09).

It’s all too obvious that Nancy Pelosi meant she was going to strip Republicans – corrupt and otherwise – of power when she boasted she would drain the D.C. swamp.  Liberals need not worry and are encouraged to continue contributing to the muck.

Madame Speaker has proven herself to be a poor sump pump. OK hopes to see major plumbing work – and House cleaning – done in 2010.

By Kelly L. Goodridge and Oscar De Los Santos

Congress recently passed two of the most grotesque bills to ever lumber across its chambers – a $789 billion stimulus bill and a $410 billion spending bill for government agencies. President Barrack Hussein Obama signed both into law.  Shortly thereafter, we learned that the stimulus bill is laden with special interests. The almost nine thousand earmarks buried in the omnibus budget equates to a catchall spending bill for most federal agencies.  In fact, there’s so much pork and personal agenda in the massive bills that like archeologists on an amazing dig, we’re still chipping – er, reading – away and making discoveries.  And like explorers in the old Mummy movies, we’re running into fiends in these rhetorical labyrinths that spook our souls now and will drain our pocketbooks in the months to come.

Many claim that House Speaker Nancy “Queen” Pelosi co-wrote the stimulus bill, which strips E-Verify for job candidates. Without verification of a job candidate’s citizenship or eligibility status, as many as 300,000 of the construction jobs created to rebuild our country’s infrastructure can go to illegal aliens instead of taxpaying citizens. For once OK agrees with The Daily Show host Jon Stewart’s outcry, “That’s Not Right!”

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) operate E-Verify. Since 1997 E-Verify has provided automated links to federal databases to help employers determine the eligibility of new hires and validate their Social Security numbers. In other words, E-Verify protects legal workers. By removing it from the stimulus bill, federal contractors and subcontractors will no longer be required to protect American citizens.

Now E-Verify is gone, its removal apparently intentional and part of Nancy Pelosi’s agenda. In fact, workplace raids are being suspended by the Obama administration ("The O'Reilly Factor," FOX News, March 19, 2009).  The Speaker of the House made treasonous comments at a recent talk at St. Anthony’s Church in San Francisco (March 14, 2009). Pelosi told legal (and we’re guessing illegal) immigrants that enforcement of existing immigration laws, as currently practiced is “un-American.” She went on to condemn raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) and said, “the raids must end.” Pelosi also referred to the immigrants she was addressing as “very, very patriotic” (“Pelosi: “Enforcing Immigration Laws in the US is Un-American,” 3/18/09, www.patdollard.com).

In an earlier blog (“Napolitano, Part 2: or Home, Home(land Security) on the Range”), we reported that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development claims there are close to 30,000 known illegal immigrants that currently live in public housing.  The total estimate of illegal aliens living illegally in our country is 12-20 million (“The Rush Limbaugh Show,” 3/19/09).  Illegals work our employment and healthcare systems. They cost American citizens money. In some cases, illegals cost us lives. Don Feder, editor of BoycottNYT.com asserts, “Each year, illegal aliens rape, rob, and murder tens of thousands of Americans, as well as leaving a trail of carnage on our nation’s highways.”

Madame Speaker, how are illegal aliens who steal jobs, rape, rob and murder Americans patriotic? You told your audience that by showing up to your talk, they were taking “responsibility for our country.” Really? How, pray tell? This is one conundrum we can’t crack. Help us, Ms. Pelosi. Recruit others to explain your meaning if you must. Call Harry Reid. Thum’n – er, Summon Barney Frank. Bring us out of our mystified state. 

Pelosi took an oath as an officer of the United States. Her misguided comments “give aid or comfort to the enemies” of the United States. By making them she violated her oath and promise to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Moreover, her speech encouraged unchecked immigration. It persuaded illegal immigrants to break the law. She called for “immigration reform” and questioned raids and deportation of illegal aliens.

“What value system is that? I think it’s un-American,” said Pelosi of separating families that are here illegally. We think you’re un-American, Speaker Pelosi.

Irrespective of political affiliation, how can we have the Speaker of the House making such reckless comments? Pelosi’s latest spoutings reveal her to be a traitor to our country. We believe she deserves impeachment. 

By Kelly L. Goodridge and Oscar De Los Santos

So much for the accountable, responsible and transparent government that President Barack Hussein Obama promised during his campaign – it isn’t happening.  El Rushbo says we “face a tragic future” under this administration (Rush Limbaugh radio show, 2-13-09).  We couldn’t agree more.

After only a month in office, Obama has repeatedly broken campaign promises of transparency, promoted a bogus ‘stimulus bill’ that gives money to election fraud experts ACORN and other questionable causes such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s wetlands mouse.  We don’t yet know all that’s in the bill – it was posted as a PDF file and cannot be searched by word recognition as can Word documents – yet some members of Congress admitted that they voted on the thousand-page plus bill without having read it. Oh, and Obama’s camp didn’t give the public a chance to view the bill as he promised before the Senate cast its final vote.

With each day, the Obama administration grows more dictatorial and socialistic in its operations. There’s no transparency and increased lying coming out of the Hope and Change crew.

Obama’s recent power grab to move the U.S. Census to the White House is more cause for concern.  Rigging the Census sounds a lot like ACORN’s election rigging. So much so that last Thursday (2-12-09), the GOP threatened legal action.  At a news conference headlined by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Darrell Issa (R-CA) said he believes the federal courts will agree that the White House's efforts to assert greater oversight of Census Bureau operations violate the law.  In their letter, Boehner and 14 other Republicans warned that White House control of the census process would "result in the politicization of the Census and open the door to massive waste and abuse in the expenditure of taxpayer funds, billions of which are distributed on the basis of census data" (http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=42037&dcn=todaysnews).

Newt Gingrich calls Obama’s attempt to abscond with the Census “Nixonian.”  He offers his own combat strategy:  “. . . Republican senators should announce that no member of the Commerce Department will be cleared and approved until they put the census back in the Commerce Department” (CNSNEWS.com, http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=43519).

On Monday (2-16-09), White House political advisor David Axelrod defended Obama’s plan to take over the U.S. Census Bureau by placing it directly under the control of top White House officials. Axelrod claims that the Census will remain in the hands of “experts” who will run the program (Newsmax.com). The Obama File reports that such a move would turn statistical science “into something where speculation and guesswork could introduce egregious and prejudicial errors.” The Census grab reflects the Democrats’ “plain hope” to adjust Census numbers, carve stronger Democratic voting districts, redistribute funds, and win leverage with illegal aliens (theobamafile.com).

The signs are clear: when he isn’t making questionable decisions such as moving the Census to the Executive branch, Obama will likely continue to make false promises to move agendas across the table.  This is even true of the stimulus bill.  Now that the House and Senate have approved it, the President wants to tinker with it.  According to the New York Post, the bill is “tougher on slashing executive pay than he wanted.”

Obama’s desire to meddle with the Congress-passed stimulus bill has even put him at odds with his own party.  Barney Frank spoke against any further revision of the plan before the President signs off on it:  “This is not, frankly, the Bush administration, where they’re going to issue a signing statement and refuse to enforce it.  They will enforce it” (“Top Dem balks as O hints at stim change,” Feb. 16, 2009).

Don’t bank on it, Barney.  Not with the new prez’s track record and penchant for doing as he pleases, when he pleases.